Maia Sandu was born on 24 May 1972 in the village of Risipeni, in the region of Fălești of the Republic of Moldova. From 1989 to 1994 she majored in management at the Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova (ASEM). Then, from 1995 to 1998, Sandu majored in international relationship at the Academy of Public Administration (Moldova). In 2010 she graduated from Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and from 2010 to 2012, Maia Sandu worked as Advisor to the Executive Director at World Bank in Washington DC, USA.